Re: crowdfunding discussion
kyrieru doesnt even think my games are good enough to warrant a link on his blog.
Here's the thing,
You're approaching this with the wrong mindset. You're fixating too much on doing it for a living, when you should be asking yourself if you're actually even ready for that. The question shouldn't be "how can I make money", it should be "how can I make my games good enough to sell".
I started using GM when I was around 15. By the time I was 17, I had worked on countless games as a hobby, some taking months, some only a week or so. But every time I would start over without finishing, because I was constantly improving and so were my standards for myself. The thought of selling something I wasn't satisfied with never crossed my mind.
When I was 19, I took a job in home-based customer service for over a year. It was during that time that I began to work on H games more in my free time. Sure, the job wasn't game development, but having a day-job gave me the time to safely try, and fail, and try again at making a good game with the skills I had built up till then. And yes, that was the goal, making a good game. I figured it'd be free. Around the time I was finishing Kurovadis, someone told me about DLsite, and I happened to get laid off soon after. That was when I put it up for sale, and ended up making enough money to make another game.
What's the point of that story? Money was never the driving force. I wanted to make good games. The idea of making games for a living was a far off goal I aspired to, not something I though I was entitled to by merit of effort. The time I spent making games to improve and create something I could be proud of was what made making a living out of it possible.
So what does this have to do with you. Why don't I link to your blog? It's because I hold you to the same standards that I'd hold myself to if I were you. Your games are terrible. Half the mechanics either barely work or are entirely broken, and I don't enjoy them at all. I'd never release something in that state. Sounds harsh, right? Well, I'd say that about my old games, too, and that's exactly why I never released a lot of my older work, let alone tried to sell it. They didn't meet my standards then, and they certainly wouldn't now.
But you are not your games, and I am not mine. You, like every developer, have the potential to create great games. Don't hold yourself in high regard and assume your effort is worth money. Because it isn't. The value in your time and effort is what you will become. You have improved, and you will continue to do so. So imagine your games in 2 years, and how much better they'll be, imagine you have achieved what you were striving towards. At that point, would you release the games your making now? Would they be an acceptable level of quality? I doubt it.
This entire post is turning into a big repetitive rant, but my point is that you need self awareness. You need to stop and consider if your games are really worth selling or not, not how you can make more money. You need to consider whether the way to go is a bunch of short, rushed, mediocre games in an attempt to make a living, or getting a day job for a while, and focusing on making the best games you can, so that when you do make a living by making games, it's with games you can be proud of, even two years from now.
And yes, feel free to add me on skype. Again, it's your games I have a problem with, not you, and your games will improve over time. It took me years to improve, but that's because I learned on my own. Learning is easier when you're learning what you need to learn, when you need to learn it, and I'm more than willing to teach you some stuff as long as you're willing to learn.
Also, my skype is just the contact info on my blog, so it was always just available to anyone -__-
